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Later, check out their Mechanical Toysfor more wild ingenuity like the Mouse-trap car.Makes you want to build one right away, but then you'll bedepleting your Mouse-trap inventory.......PETA PETAnimals party for a good cause.http://news.yahoo.com/photos/sm/events/pl/090503petanimals/p:1Peeping Tom Pulled From Outhouse Tankhttp://tinyurl.com/csbfzKinky Texas Jewish Cowboy Poet runs for office"Common sense is having life without the possibility of parole instead ofjust inject or eject. And common sense tells me that if we're in a race tothe bottom with Mississippi in almost every category and we're the first inexecutions, then something's a little bit wrong spiritually with our leadership.So, you got common sense, you got spirituality and, you know,Friedman's just another word for nothing left to lose. And when you've gotnothing left to lose like Jesse Ventura or Kinky Friedman, you might just tell the truth."http://www.dallasobserver.com/Issues/current/news/feature.htmlOne Fish for the Guiness BookBANGKOK, Thailand - Thai fishermen caught a 646-pound catfish believed to have been the world's largest freshwater fish ever recorded, a researcher said Thursday.They ate the whole thing ! http://tinyurl.com/8bkgt

Monday, June 27, 2005

Birdie Kim is US Women's Champion at 23The U.S. Women's Open champion went by her given name, Ju-Yun Kim,as a rookie last year, but decided to use ``Birdie'' this season to stand outfrom the other five players with Kim as a surname on the LPGA Tour

``I wanted something different, something simple and easy,'' she said atthe start of the season. ``Birdie is good in golf, and it's good for me.''

After 38 years of collecting pennies, Mr Knowles has cashedin his collection which totalled a whopping $13,084.59 (£7,182.69).

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4619605.stmSingles Ad:SINGLE BLACK FEMALE seeks male companionship, ethnicityunimportant. I'm a very good looking girl who LOVES to play.I love long walks in the woods, riding in your pickup truck, hunting,camping and fishing trips, cozy winter nights lying by the fire.Candlelight dinners will have me eating out of your hand.Rub me the right way and watch me respond. I'll be at the front doorwhen you get home from work, wearing only what nature gave me.Kiss me and I'm yours. Call (404) 875-6420 and ask for Daisy.

Over 15,000 men found themselves talking to theAtlanta Humane Society about an 8-week old black Labrador retriever.

Sunday, June 26, 2005

Get FIREFOX !WEB BROWSER (Free) Let the browser wars begin anew: This open-source program is streamlined, customizable, and just plain better. No wonder it has attracted millions of users in just a few months. Is it merely a coincidence that Microsoft finally plans to give the aging Internet Explorer the major overhaul it has needed for years? Review | Download"Chatty" Mannequin"It is a device that can show a person's face, looks and mouth movements,"said the developer, Ishikawa Optics and Arts Corp. of Tokyo."It forms realistic images as if he or she were really talking to you."

Sam was in dire trouble. His business had gone bust and he wasin serious financial trouble. He was so desperate he decided to pray for help.

He began, ‘God, please help me. I've lost my business and if I don't get somemoney, I'm going to lose my house as well. Please let me win the lottery.’Lottery night came and Sam didn’t win.

Again Sam prays, ‘God, please let me win the lottery! I've lost my business,my house and I'm going to lose my car as well.’ Lotto night comes andSam still has no luck.

Once again, he prays, ‘My God, why have you forsaken me?? I've lost mybusiness, my house, and my car. My wife and children are starving.I don't often ask you for help and I have always been a good servant to you.PLEASE just let me win the lottery this one time so I can get my life back in order.’

Suddenly there is a blinding flash of light as the heavens open. Sam is confrontedby the voice of God Himself:

‘ Sam, ’ says God, ‘meet Me halfway on this. Buy a bloody ticket. ! ’Quote of the Day"Be careful of the butt you kick on the way up.It may be the butt you have to kiss on the way down."

"Sit all day by the door of your house and bark atanyone who comes in or walks past. For this, I willgive you a life span of twenty years."

The Dog said:"That's a long time to be barking. How about only tenyears and I'll give you back the other ten?"

So God agreed.

On the next day, God created the Monkey and said:"Entertain people, do tricks, and make them laugh.For this, I'll give you a twenty-year life span."

The Monkey said:"Monkey tricks for twenty years? That's a pretty longtime to perform. How about I give you back ten likethe Dog did?"

And God agreed.

On the next day, God created the Cow and said:"You must go into the field with the farmer all daylong and suffer under the sun, have calves and give milk to support the farmer's family. For this, I will give you a life span of sixty years."

The Cow said: "That's kind of a tough life you want meto live for sixty years. How about twenty and I'll giveback the other forty?"

And God agreed again.

Then on the next day, God created Man and said:"Eat, sleep, play, marry and enjoy your life. Forthis, I'll give you twenty years."

But Man said:"Only twenty years? Could you possibly give me mytwenty, the forty the cow gave back, the ten themonkey gave back, and the ten the dog gave back; thatmakes eighty, okay?"

"Okay," said God, "You asked for it."

So that is why the first twenty years we eat, sleep,play and enjoy ourselves. For the next forty yearswe slave in the sun to support our family. For thenext ten years we do monkey tricks to entertain thegrandchildren. And for the last ten years we sit onthe front porch and bark at everyone.

Tuesday, June 21, 2005

There was this case in the hospital's Intensive Care Unit where patients always died in the same bed and on a Sunday morning at 11 a.m., regardless of their medical condition.

This puzzled the doctors and some even thought that it had something to do with the supernatural. No one could solve the mystery as to why the deaths took place at 11 AM. So a world-wide expert team was constituted and they decided to go down to the ward to investigate the cause of the incidents.

So on the next Sunday morning a few minutes before 11 a.m., all doctors and nurses nervously waited outside the ward to see for themselves what the terrible phenomenon was all about. Some were holding wooden crosses,prayer books and other holy objects to ward off evil....

Just then the clock struck 11...

and then......

Santa Singh, the part-time Sunday worker, entered the ward and unplugged the life support system & plugged in the vacuum cleaner ...

It's a beautiful, warm spring morning.A man and his wife are spending the day at the zoo.She's wearing a cute, loose-fitting, pink dress,sleeveless with straps. He's wearing his normal jeans and a T-shirt.

The zoo is not very busy this morning. As they walk through the apeexhibit, they pass in front of a large, hairy gorilla. Noticing the girl,the gorilla goes ape. He jumps on the bars, and holding on with onehand (and 2 feet), he grunts and pounds his chest with his free hand.He is obviously excited at the pretty lady in the dress.

The husband, noticing the excitement, thinks this is funny.He suggests that his wife tease the poor fellow some more.The husband suggests she pucker her lips, wiggle her bottom at him,and play along. She does, and Mr. Gorilla gets even more excited,making noises that would wake the dead.

Then the husband suggests that she let one of her straps fall to showa little more skin. She does, and Mr. Gorilla is about to tear the barsdown. "Now try lifting your dress up. Show your thighs and sort of fanit at him," he says. This drives the gorilla absolutely crazy, and nowhe's doing flips.

Then the husband grabs his wife, rips open the door to the cage,flings her in with the gorilla and slams the cage door shut.

Ketchup with TrousersAn email between a highly paid lawyer and a secretaryover a tomato ketchup stain has become the talk of legalcircles in London, leaving the sender distinctly red-faced.

British media reported with glee the tale of Richard Phillipswho emailed the secretary to ask her to pay a four pound($7.30) dry-cleaning bill after she accidentally spilled tomatoketchup on his trousers.http://tinyurl.com/dszz7

Japanese aged 95 sets athletics world recordTOKYO (AFP) - A 95-year-old Japanese set an athletics worldrecord in the southern city of Miyazaki -- breaking the 100-meterstime for men aged 95-99.http://tinyurl.com/dq5zmBlonde to Control TowerA blonde is on board a small two seater plane whensuddenly the pilot dies. Not knowing how to fly a planeshe grabs the radio.

" Mayday, Mayday ! My pilot just died ! "

Ground control receives her call for help and answers back :

"Don't worry, madam. I'll talk you down, just do as I say.First I need you to give me your height and position"

" I'm 5"2' and sitting in the front ..."Blonde, but of a different class

This is from Reuters SingaporeThey apologized because the asses displayed were entering the Guiness Book of Records for the longestline of Tattooed backs, and Reuters messed up in reporting the actual length.

Geldof Gets His Way Again"Three weeks ago Europe agreed, unbelievably, to double aid,throwing the ball back to the Yanks [Americans], the Japaneseand the Canadians," the former Boomtown Rat said Thursdayafter receiving an honorary degree in his hometown of Dublin.

"So that forced me now to do, which I didn't want to do, a concertin Tokyo [and Toronto] which we are announcing tomorrow."

The additions of Japan and Canada nearly fulfill Geldof's originalvision of staging shows in each of the G8 countries, which representthe world's wealthiest nations. The G8 is made up of the United States,United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Canada and Russia,and also includes the European Union. Russia is the only membernation that doesn't yet have a Live 8 concert planned.http://tinyurl.com/82rdz

e-Bay bows to Geldof

LONDON (Reuters) - Internet auction site eBay has suspendedsome of the accounts of users who sabotaged online sales of freeLive 8 concert tickets by making hoax bids of up to 10 million pounds.

On Tuesday, eBay ended a sale of free Live 8 tickets afterwidespread protests. Concerts organiser Bob Geldof labelled the site an"electronic pimp" and urged people to swamp it.

"In accordance with eBay's site rules, once an individual places a bidon an item, it acts as a binding contract and the individual is obliged tohonour it," eBay said on Thursday.

Thursday, June 16, 2005

ROLF HEIMANN (guitars, vocals, kazoo and the like)has learnt his trade in diverse blues groups.In Europe, particularly in Western Germany he is duly respected as an expert on the slide or bottleneck guitar.http://www.professor-bottleneck.de/SoloEng.htm

The Juvenile Delinquents a.k.a. The MelodyMakers- Bishops' School Poona ~the 60'sROLF HEIMANN on guitar (right) seen here (l-r) with the lateEric Hyam, Trevor Selwyn, Hugh Ledlie and Haroon Saleh.They were unmistakably talented and proved it by rising abovetheir primitive gear, especially the 'Box Bass' made out of aTea Chest which Haroon is playing....and I don'tsee any cymbals, do you ?

LONDON (AFP) - A somewhat eccentric British man who was arrested 14 times while hiking the length of Britain wearing nothing but boots, hat and a rucksack, pledged to repeat his feat -- but this time in company.

Stephen Gough, 46, whose dogged pursuit of his goal during 2003 and 2004, slowed down by two jail sentences, brought him national fame as the "naked rambler", plans to set off on Thursday from Land's End in Cornwall, England's most southwesterly point.

In the interest of reducing costs and maximizing profit margins, many corporations are looking to non-human sources of labor. In particular, bears and several species of primates are being pegged as candidates to fill a range of future jobs, enabling their employers to liberate themselves from the expensive wages they're presently bound to pay their human counterparts.

Several American companies have already begun the process of 'dehumanizing' their work forces by delegating current employees to train the animals hired to replace them. Boeing, Microsoft and General Motors have all announced plans to transition to janitorial staffs comprised entirely of monkeys and bears by 2008 while the payrolls of Wal-Mart and several fast food chains including McDonalds and Taco Bell have already been trimmed by 4% as chimpanzees and gorillas begin to replace human workers.http://www.newsmutiny.com/pages/bearjanitor.htm

Tuesday, June 14, 2005

Om Shantay Ommmm "Things can be copyrighted, thoughts cannot be copyrighted, and certainly meditation cannot be copyrighted. They are not things of the marketplace. "Nobody can monopolize anything. But perhaps the West cannot understand the difference between an objective commodity and an inner experience.

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi has copyrighted transcendental meditation and just underneath in a small circle you will find written TM – that means trademark!

For ten thousand years the East has been meditating and nobody has put trademarks upon meditations. And above all, that transcendental meditation is neither transcendental nor meditation... just a trademark. I have told Neelam to reply to these people, "You don't understand what meditation is. It is nobody's belonging, possession. You cannot have any copyright. Perhaps if your country gives you trademarks and copyrights on things like meditation, then it will be good to have a copyright on stupidity. That will help the whole world to be relieved...

Only you will be stupid and nobody else can be stupid; it will be illegal."

From Osho's book: Om Shanthi Shanthi Shanti Chapter 26

NATURE'S CALLFlower Shaped Urinals & Other Nature Inspired SculpturesClark Sorensen has created some of the most amazing and beautiful urinalsone is likely to ever see. These unique sculptures will be on display for threeand a half weeks only. Each is meticulously hand built and one of a kind - formedfrom high fire porcelain and fired to cone 10 (2300 deg.). They are fully functioningvitreous porcelain fixtures that can actually be plumbed and used in a bathroom orsimply displayed. The show even contains three functioning urinals that you may flush!Clark hopes that his urinals will be put to use in uniquely designed bathrooms around the world.He has a gorgeous Calla Lily urinal in his studio from a previous show that is plumbedand fully functioning.http://www.clarkmade.com/Pranks: Eight tales of sculpture and sign placement, and three other gags.http://www.cockeyed.com/pranks/prank.htmlOops ! Naughty Stuff on your PC ?http://www.cyberwalker.net/faqs/how-tos/clear-browser-cache.html

HARARE, Zimbabwe -- Zimbabwe's government has criticized the cash-strapped nationalairline for flying unviable routes, including one trip which saw an Air Zimbabwe jet fly 3,728miles from Dubai with a solitary passenger aboard.

The official Herald newspaper Monday quoted Transport and Communications SecretaryKarikoga Kaseke as saying Air Zimbabwe, struggling with chronic fuel shortages causedby the country's acute economic crisis, was a victim of "inept management."

Local media reported earlier this month that Air Zimbabwe's maiden flight to Dubai,a Boeing 737, left with 49 passengers on board and made the return flight with just one.

"Our investigations have revealed that no proper market research was done before they(Air Zimbabwe) engaged on the Dubai trip," the Herald quoted Kaseke as saying.

"It reflects the level of mediocrity of the management at Air Zimbabwe and it also reflectsa management that has little knowledge of aviation, a management that acts on hearsay," he added.

Pieces of plane stowaway's body land in yardReuters News Service

NEW YORK - Pieces of a man's body fell from the wheel well of a South African Airwayspassenger plane bound for John F. Kennedy International Airport Tuesday and landed inthe yard of a suburban home, police said.

A U.S. customs inspector discovered the rest of the man's body at 7:30 a.m. after Flight 203landed in New York from Johannesburg, South Africa, said a spokesman for the Port Authorityof New York and New Jersey, which oversees area airports.

A South African Airways spokeswoman said it appeared to have been a stowaway attempt.She said the plane had stopped in Dakar, Senegal, on its way to New York.

The pilot reported feeling vibrations at takeoff but conducted a check and found nothing amiss,said Nassau County, New York, police detective Kevin Smith.

During the flight, Smith said the pilot felt more ''vibrating sensations and heard pounding, butnothing appeared wrong with the plane.''

The body parts, which included the right leg, part of the spine and a hip, struck a garage roof ofthe home in South Floral Park, New York, before landing in the backyard, police said

When it is Toufiq Qureshi that you are breaking bread with,what comes your way in between bites, are a lot of goodies. So while the renowned percussionist very unassumingly shares some musical gyaan with you, he is also not averse to dazzling fellow diners with a demonstration of ‘cheek percussions’ as he taps out the Pink Panther theme music on his cheeks with his fingers.

While he does leave you awestruck with the ingenious ways he employs to make music,he gently reminds you that with a father like the late tabla maestro, Ustad Allah Rakha Khanand with a brother like Ustad Zakir Hussain, bringing forth rhythyms and sounds into theworld are what he is best off doing.

Saturday, June 11, 2005

(MADRAS, INDIA) Only the intoxicating fragrance of the jasmine thatflower girls sell along the teeming sidewalks hints at the hiddenopulence of the shopping district. Otherwise, Panagal Park, with itsmodest bazaar vendors and dusty traffic, is a far cry fromNew York's Fifth Avenue.

But enter one of the multistoried silk stores, and you'll hear elevatorgossip reminiscent of Tiffany's or Bergdorf Goodman: Is it true thatcelebrity came to the first floor today? No, she came yesterday;another one came today.

What they shopped for were Kanchipuram silk saris, considered theVersaces of southern India, because one piece can cost $1,000. Manywill last a lifetime with good care, and all represent status.

Kanchipuram silk, named after the city in which it's produced, is atradition that some say goes back hundreds of years, perhaps to theorigins of the city in the 8th or 9th century. The colors arebrilliant, and the designs of tropical flora and fauna, in gold thread,are exquisitely geometric.

Thursday, June 09, 2005

Not quite the accomplished Blogger at this point,here are my thoughts at the time:

Seeing this pic

made available in London, Thursday June 9, 2005, by ZooMagazine, that shows Manchester, England, police officerRachelle Pantoja, 27, who is under investigation by theInternal Affairs department at Greater Manchester Police,and has been put on restricted duties and transferred tothe Traffic Division, after posing for the magazine in aswimsuit.(AP Photo/Zoo Magazine, via pa) reminded meof the time I picked up a female Brit from JFK airport in NYC. Turned out to be a London Bobby,a gorgeous,stately woman with a warm and friendly manner, plusthat accent....!

In fact our Limo conversation was so easy-going that I soonasked her if she was on assignment in NYC and had herhandcuffs with her.

She laughed heartily and said if I wanted to see her handcuffsI should visit her flat in London where she had a large collection of handcuffs and whips.

Wednesday, June 08, 2005

you underestimate yourself ! You have done a bang-up and 'Thorough' joband I couldn't ask for more, what with all the details in your Profile, which helps to make it a great start for this, the Final Blog.

Please inform Pom, Mike P. and any others as you see fit as I don't have my old e-mail address book anymore

You can post just as you did before but if you want to post.pics they willhave to be handled by Hello/Picasa which are free downloads and Pomis proof that Hello works well- he made a lot of movies and albums using it.

Freak Out once again all you Virtual Poona Mothers and Others !What was once the Virtual Poona Group at Yahoo Groupsis now a Blog. I aim to make this one a better and morevaried one and welcome your comments, suggestions andfeedback via e-mail to frdmilltx(at)yahoo(dot)com

Sunday, June 05, 2005

former Virtual Poona Group Members and Visitors to theVirtual Poona Blogspot !

I decided to persist in my Virtual Poona (formerly VC) Reunionefforts and in keeping with the times I intend to go whereno sane man has gone before, and include

All Things bright and beautifulAll Creatures great and smallAll Things wise and wonderful....I'm Awaiting on You All !

There are quite a few changes this time around and so I suggest youspend your precious time exploring all that this Blog is uncapable of,just like I will be doing. Don't be shy or hesitant to offer:feedback, news, pics or abuse

(what is the useof no abuse ?There's no excusefor no abuse.Why blow your fusewhen you can chooseto useabuse ?)

that will help this, the Final Chapter (maybe) of Virtual Poona,an unbelievably unbelievable one !